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$28-million Picasso loaned to Vancouver Art Gallery for exhibition

Author of the article:

Kevin Griffin

Publishing date:

June 8, 2016 • 3 minute read

Qingxiang Guo, curator of the Wanda Group's Picasso collection, with his wife Bing Zhang next to the Claude et Paloma painting at the Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver, June 7, 2016.Arlen Redekop/ PNG

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One of the most expensive works of art ever shown in Vancouver has been loaned to the Vancouver Art Gallery for its exhibition on Pablo Picasso.

China’s Wanda Group purchased Claude et Paloma for $28.2 million US including fees at Christie’s November auction in 2013. The oil on canvas work depicts two of Picasso’s children born as a result of his long-term relationship with Françoise Gilot.

It will be on display in the VAG’s exhibition Picasso: The Artist and His Muses (opening Saturday), which looks at the creative and personal relationship between Picasso and the six women in his life, including Gilot.

Qingxiang (pronounced Chingshun) Guo oversees the Wanda Group art collection, which is owned by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin. He’s ranked as the richest person in China with a net worth of $31.5 billion US.

Guo said he agreed to loan the painting to the VAG in part because of his connections to Vancouver. He has a condominium in Coal Harbour, where he spends part of the year. Also, his son and granddaughter were born in this city.

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“Two generations of my family were born here. I like Canada,” he said in an interview.

“I want to do this for Vancouver so people can enjoy the art and the best pieces by Picasso. Art is for the general public, not for personal use. It should be shared.”

The Wanda Group describes itself as the world’s largest property company. It owns 84 hotels and 113 shopping centres as well as more than 500 movie theatres. Earlier this year the Wanda Group became the first Chinese company to own a major Hollywood studio when it bought Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion.

The Wanda Group’s art collection numbers more than 1,000 works valued at $1.6 billion.

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Guo, who founded the Wanda art collection 30 years ago, said he started by following his passion in art. His first purchase was a painting by Guanzhong Wu, who is considered the founder of modern Chinese painting for the way he blended Chinese and western styles.

Qingxiang Guo is the curator of the Wanda Group’s art collection, which is loaning Pablo Picasso’s Claude et Paloma painting to the VAG.Mark van Manen/PNG

Over the years, the collection has grown to focus on two areas: works by Impressionists and Modernists from the Western tradition and Chinese art. Guo has a team of about 10 that work with him to build the collection.

Last year, for example, the Wanda Group bought Claude Monet’s Bassin aux nymphéas, les rosier for $20.1 million at Christie’s. Other works in Wanda’s collection including paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock.

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Guo said he met VAG director Kathleen Bartels last year about loaning works to the gallery. The Wanda Group has also loaned a second Picasso painting called Tête de femme au chapeau.

Claude et Paloma, painted in 1950, depicts the elder Claude (on the viewer’s right) with his younger sister beside him. According to the Christie’s catalogue entry, the work repeatedly emphases the children’s playful world through the many round, decorative patterns on the bottom of the work, the fat, stubby fingers of the children and the low point of view, which is from that of a child.

The catalogue says Picasso “created an unequalled symbiosis of subject and form, depicting the children’s untrammelled world of play and fantasy in a surface-bound, graphic style that is decidedly tailored to the modes of expression of a child.”

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As well, Guo said what is not as widely known is that the painting is more than a portrait of two children: The painting depicts both Claude and Paloma as well as Picasso and Gilot. The two parents can be seen in Claude, the figure on the right: his oval face shows two noses and faces in profile about to kiss one another.

The painting is exhibited at the VAG next to a large photograph that captures a happy time in the life of the family.

Guo, speaking through a translator, said the Vancouver Art Gallery was particular about choosing the two paintings.

“The gallery wanted works that represent mature works by Picasso when he was at his peak career moment,” he said.

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